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I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire

Coming in hot, direct from sold-out New York previews, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire now graces the London stage for a limited six-week run.

A whirlwind of late 90s nostalgia dripping with teen angst

Fresh and fun, with the energy of having just landed in London, this production is a whirlwind of late 90s nostalgia dripping with everrelatable teenage angst.

Despite only being 14, Shelby Hinkley’s love of Tobey Maguire verges on problematic. We meet Shelby in her basement bedroom flicking through Cosmo and marrying off her Furby to a merman figurine. She dreams of prom, finishing high school and snogging Tobey Maguire. So far, so relatable.

But it’s not as simple as all that, because Shelby has a big secret, one that even the other Tobey Maguire Fan Club members don’t know about.

We do though. The elephant in the room is in human form. The solvent sniffing, fake Stockholm syndrome-suffering Tobey Maguire, handcuffed to a pole in Shelby’s basement.

A compelling premise, heightened by intimate staging, 90s musical references and a great comic lead in Tessa Albertson’s Shelby.

The polychromatic set does a convincing job of 90s teendom, expanding beyond the stage so that the entire Southwark Playhouse is plastered in Tobey Maguire magazine covershoots. Even on a toilet break, we are forced to consider the extent of Shelby’s obsessive love and Tobey’s washboard abs.

Though playful in its costume choices and whip-sharp dialogue, darkness seeps in. References to Shelby’s neglectful mother and her bullying peers cause us to empathise with our teenage kidnapper, looking past the glossy veneer to consider how obsession can be a coping mechanism for trauma.

A wailing Shelby goes from girlish giggles to creepy cackles in seconds, having us wonder whether she’s evil, unhinged or simply struggling to manage her adolescent hormones.

An original work by American playwright Samantha Hurley, the show feels fresh, despite being set 30 years ago with an abundance of retro references to Shrek and Avril Lavigne thrown in.

Despite being an American transfer, the show certainly translates. Even Brenda de Cankles’ cornhole reference is too good to drop.

If you want to meet Brenda, Tobey and Shelby for a playful yet edgy 90-minute production, get down to the Southwark Playhouse Borough within the next six weeks!

Reviews by Laura Tucker

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★★★★
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Performances

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The Blurb

Direct from its critically acclaimed sold-out New York premiere, this sharp new comedy reminds us that with great obsession comes great heartache.

It’s 2004. Shelby Hinkley is just like any other 14-year-old born in the 90s. Coping with the absence of her father, neglect of her mother, and ridicule by her classmates she has put all of her time and energy into the one thing that matters: Spiderman. When leading a devout online fan club proves insufficient to her needs, Shelby decides to risk it all for love, kidnap Tobey Maguire, and marry him… in her basement. As her fantasies of happily ever after start to crumble, she realizes that Tobey may not be the charismatic heartthrob, she thinks she knows.

A Y2K farce, I’m Gonna Marry You Tobey Maguire is a full-throttle explosion of our para-social relationships and the obsessions that detonate them.

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